{"id":329988,"date":"2026-05-24T01:34:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329988\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:34:41","slug":"jared-huffman-treads-new-and-familiar-political-ground-in-bid-for-redrawn-northern-california-seat-in-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329988\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Huffman treads new and familiar political ground in bid for redrawn Northern California seat in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wolf is decidedly not at the door for Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, the seven-term incumbent whose campaign coffers are flush and whose frontrunner status appears solid<\/a> going into the June 2 primary election for California\u2019s 2nd Congressional District.<\/p>\n

Yet, the North American gray wolf has been on Huffman\u2019s mind of late \u2014 especially during trips to the northern reaches of his recently redrawn, 13,800-square-mile district, a kind of vertical Nike swoosh spanning from the Pacific Ocean to the Nevada border, at the top of the state, then dropping south as it long has in a narrower strip along the coast, down to the Golden Gate.<\/p>\n

Once eradicated in California, canis lupus is bouncing back in 2nd District\u2019s northernmost counties \u2014 Shasta, Modoc, Siskiyou \u2014 so much so that the predation losses for livestock producers have become a campaign issue.<\/p>\n

While many of those rural, right-leaning residents aren\u2019t likely to ever see eye-to-eye with him on issues like gun rights, abortion and climate change, the former environmental attorney is optimistic about finding common ground on the wolf issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing amazingly well,\u201d Huffman said this week of the rebounding apex predators. \u201cBut the conflicts are real.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019d rather see ranchers use nonlethal methods to protect their herds, \u201cYou can use lethal force if it\u2019s protecting human life or property. And that has happened very recently in California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s basically the toolbox. And I support using the whole toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowded field<\/p>\n

In his quest for an eighth term, Huffman is facing seven challengers. The top two vote-getters on June 2 will advance to a November runoff.<\/p>\n

The most formidable of those challengers is Nicolette Hahn Niman of Bolinas, an author, runner, former environmental lawyer and rancher who, along with her husband, Bill, earned renown for their pioneering, sustainable, organic and humane practices raising beef cattle.<\/p>\n

Before moving to California, she lived in Manhattan and worked as an attorney for the international clean-water advocacy group Waterkeeper Alliance, co-founded and led by one Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n

Hahn Niman, who lists no party preference, has been a vocal opponent of the settlement that led to most private ranching being phased out<\/a> at Point Reyes National Seashore, where she and her husband are one of two family ranches<\/a> suing to unwind the historic shift<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hahn Niman accuses Huffman, who helped set in motion the mediation that eventually led to the\u00a0Point Reyes settlement<\/a>, of espousing an \u201cexclusive, absolutist kind of environmentalism.\u201d She\u2019s been working to depict him as out of touch with the issues affecting ranchers, farmers and rural Californians.<\/p>\n

Gregory Burgess, the other independent in the race, is a Mill Valley resident who has worked as a special education teacher, mail carrier, school bus driver and clinical engineer training AI \u201cto detect blood loss in surgery,\u201d he shared in a Ballotpedia questionnaire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has a master\u2019s degree in public health, according to the Marin Independent Journal, and believes the most important issue is food security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are facing a rather drastic problem with our national herds,\u201d he said. \u201cClimate change is reducing our arable land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose Yee, a progressive Democrat from Redding, serves as chair of the Shasta County Democratic Central Committee, and co-founded a company that helps people grow their savings \u201cthrough socially responsible investing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raised under martial law in the Philippines, where her father was a human rights lawyer and her mother a journalist, she recounts in Ballotpedia<\/a>, \u201cI learned the power of grassroots democracy early on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four of the challengers, all Republican, are from Shasta County.<\/p>\n

Candidate Tim Geist feels called to rein in artificial intelligence, \u201cwhich could become a potent weapon for truth or propaganda.\u201d He has developed \u201clegislative\u201d measures \u201cto inhibit vicious lies in Congress\u201d \u2013 the kinds of untruths, he warns on Ballotpedia<\/a>, \u201cthat led to the riots against the Capital on January 6, 2026 \u2026 I will never forget who said what to catalyze that mayhem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robin Littau is a former Coast Guard diesel mechanic and single mother of four and \u201cChrist-following Christian,\u201d according to her Ballotpedia questionnaire<\/a>, who owns and operates two small businesses and seeks to decrease \u201cburdensome taxation,\u201d while rooting out fraud and waste.<\/p>\n

Paul Saulsbury is a father and mobile crisis clinician whose past jobs include EMT, group-home counselor and flight attendant. His priorities, listed on his campaign website<\/a>, include \u201cPublic Safety & Mental Health, Affordable Living and Local Jobs, Wildfire Prevention and Forest Management, and Rural Healthcare Access.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angelita Valles is a former prison warden who went on to teach criminal justice at community colleges, then earned her master\u2019s degree \u201cin an international executive program,\u201d her website says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Valles spent part of her childhood in foster care, then had a baby when she was 16. She recalls, of those challenging early years, \u201cThere was no safety net. No shortcuts. Only work, faith, and perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is especially passionate about the need for reform of the state\u2019s topsy-turvy insurance market.<\/p>\n

Assigning blame<\/p>\n

Returning a reporter\u2019s call from her car during a recent swing through Shasta County \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m about to go into a very rural area, so I might lose service,\u201d she said \u2014 Hahn Niman voiced her displeasure with Huffman\u2019s role in orchestrating the confidential talks<\/a> that led to the reportedly $30 million Nature Conservancy settlement.<\/a><\/p>\n

That agreement resulted in the exodus of a dozen ranching and dairy families from Point Reyes seashore, on a windswept West Marin peninsula where many of those operations dated back decades, from before the park\u2019s creation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

Noah Berger\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Bill Niman, left, and Nicolette Hahn Niman, right, at their Bolinas ranch, in 2008. Nicolette Hahn Niman authored the 2014 book \u201cDefending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production.\u201d She and her husband are part of a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the National Park Service\u2019s Biden-era deal to phase out ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore. (Noah Berger\/The New York Times)<\/p>\n

A decade earlier, she alleged, Huffman was \u201cvery involved\u201d in the closure of the Drake\u2019s Bay Oyster Company<\/a>, whose 40-year lease in the national park ended in 2012, and wasn\u2019t renewed by the U.S. Interior Department, creating a national stir.<\/p>\n

Huffman pushed back forcefully against both accusations, pointing out that he was a state Assemblyman in 2012, when the decision was made not to renew the oyster company\u2019s lease.<\/p>\n

Once he took office, and while the oyster company\u2019s appeal of the decision played out in the courts, he recalled, \u201cI was straight down the middle, neutral the whole way through, and frankly avoided the issue. I did not take a side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she thinks that somehow pushed (the company) out, I think it\u2019s delusional to make that argument,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Turning to her contention that he\u2019d been meeting with ranchers and encouraging them to accept buyouts long before he \u201cbrought in\u201d The Nature Conservancy, Huffman corrected:<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not \u2018bring\u2019 The Nature Conservancy in, but I did help bring a mediator in<\/a>. So that was my role, basically urging everybody to try to work something out. They seemed to want to do that. It unfolded from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that, long before that, I was in there urging people to accept buyouts \u2014 that, too, is false. I didn\u2019t know if there would be buyouts. I had no money to offer anyone buyouts, I didn\u2019t have the Park Service funded to give buyouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea where she gets that. It\u2019s just categorically wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"During<\/p>\n

Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n

During a sometimes contentious meeting at the Point Reyes Dance Palace held to explain the decision to buy out dairy and cattle ranchers in Point Reyes National Seashore, Rep. Jared Huffman gives a statement. To Huffman\u2019s left is Point Reyes National Seashore superintendent Anne Altman and outreach coordinator Melanie Gunn. At right is Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni and rancher Kevin Lunny. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n

The main point he sought to make, Huffman said, was that in \u201cin my 20 years of supporting the seashore ranchers, in state and federal office, going to town halls and community meetings and Seashore Ranchers Association meetings, she was never in any of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m not going to yield any ground when it comes to supporting seashore ranchers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Lethal intervention\u2019<\/p>\n

Huffman is equally determined to \u201cget ahead of\u201d the wolf issue.<\/p>\n

He recently spent half a day with researchers from the Berkeley-based California Wolf Project, whose field work \u2014 and scat analysis \u2014 revealed that some packs \u201care dining on beef, almost exclusively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long-term solutions include habitat restoration and wildlife corridors, to \u201cbring back thriving deer and elk and antelope herds, so that the wolves will have something else to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonlethal options include surveillance \u2014 some wolves have been collared by researchers \u2014 \u201chazing,\u201d and compensating ranchers after losses. \u201cBut that\u2019s not ideal,\u201d he said. You\u2019d like to prevent the losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ken<\/p>\n

Ken Tate, right, a University of California, Davis, professor studying the impacts of expanding wolf populations on California\u2019s ranchers, and Rick Roberti, president of the California Cattlemen\u2019s Association, walk past a dead calf on the DS Ranches on May 5, 2025, in Sierra Valley, California. (Renee Byer\/The Sacramento Bee\/TNS)\n<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File<\/p>\n

FILE – In this Feb. 2021, file photo released by California Department of Fish and Wildlife shows a protected gray wolf (OR-93), seen near Yosemite, Calif., shared by the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Biden on Thursday finalized rules for protecting imperiled species that reverse changes under former President Donald Trump that weakened the Endangered Species Act. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

Ken Tate, right, a University of California, Davis, professor studying the impacts of expanding wolf populations on California\u2019s ranchers, and Rick Roberti, president of the California Cattlemen\u2019s Association, walk past a dead calf on the DS Ranches on May 5, 2025, in Sierra Valley, California. (Renee Byer\/The Sacramento Bee\/TNS)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

To do that, Huffman added, \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to experiment, we\u2019re going to have to innovate. And in the case of problem wolves that just get locked in on cattle and can\u2019t be deterred, we\u2019re going to have to do some lethal intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a notable reply, coming from the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and one of the most ardent conservationists in Congress. It was only two years ago, after all, during a House floor debate on the removal of wolves from the Endangered Species list, that he criticized Republicans for once again being \u201cready to rev-up the wolf-killing machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he remains opposed to delisting the species, Huffman\u2019s evolved stance on how to handle \u201cproblem wolves\u201d illustrates one of the challenges of running for office in a bipolar district with deep blue, progressive Marin County at one end and a good chunk of the proposed State of Jefferson at the other. (That secessionist fever dream would form a 51st state made up of rural, conservative counties in Northern California and Southern Oregon.)<\/p>\n

Unfamiliar turf<\/p>\n

In response to a gerrymandered political map released by the Texas Legislature last August, Californians passed Prop. 50, authorizing the state to carve out five new Democratic seats.<\/p>\n

To siphon off sufficient Democratic voters to create a new, safe blue district in Northern California\u2019s 1st District \u2014 which takes in Santa Rosa and is being contested by, among others, Audrey Denney and state Sen. Mike McGuire, both Democrats, and the Republican James Gallagher \u2014 mapmakers recast the districts of Huffman and fellow North Bay incumbent Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who now find themselves campaigning across less familiar turf.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A map of California\u2019s new congressional districts after the passage of Prop. 50. shows Rep. Jared Huffman’s 2nd Congressional District (in green), which going forward includes Shasta, Siskiyou and Modoc counties in the northernmost part of the state. Those districts had previously been a part of the 1st Congressional District, last represented by the late Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa. Rep. Mike Thompson’s revamped 4th District is shown in purple and now stretches east from Sonoma County to include parts of the Sierra Nevada foothills. (Contributed)<\/p>\n

\"Re.<\/p>\n

John Burgess \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n

Re. Mike Thompson, right, and Rep. Jared Huffman hosted a Roundtable discussion on the state of Social Security with local public and private sector leaders Tuesday, April 15, 2025 at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa. (John Burgess \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

A map of California\u2019s new congressional districts after the passage of Prop. 50. shows Rep. Jared Huffman’s 2nd Congressional District (in green), which going forward includes Shasta, Siskiyou and Modoc counties in the northernmost part of the state. Those districts had previously been a part of the 1st Congressional District, last represented by the late Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa. Rep. Mike Thompson’s revamped 4th District is shown in purple and now stretches east from Sonoma County to include parts of the Sierra Nevada foothills. (Contributed)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

As Sonoma State political science professor David McCuan put it, Huffman and Thompson \u201care taking a hit for team California \u2014 for the congressional Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those five likely California pick-ups loom especially large for Democrats in the wake of recent, major reversals in the national redistricting arms race.<\/p>\n

Paul Mitchell, the Sacramento-based consultant who designed the state\u2019s post-Prop. 50 districts, said that without California\u2019s new maps, \u201cRepublican gains in the redistricting might have been insurmountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems \u201cmore and more likely,\u201d he said, \u201cthat if Democrats win the House, it\u2019s only going to be by a few seats,\u201d with California as the \u201cdeciding factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving up?<\/p>\n

A Democratic takeover in the House would propel Huffman to the chairmanship of the Natural Resources committee, a role he has long coveted, and which would broaden his ability to fight back against Trump administration rollbacks on environmental and public lands policies.<\/p>\n

In recent years, McCuan noted, Huffman\u2019s role in the party has started to transcend \u201cjust being a leader on the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huffman sounded an early alarm against Project 2025<\/a>, forming a task force to combat that ultra-right Heritage Foundation document, which Trump has since used as a roadmap in his second term. And Huffman\u2019s was one of the first voices, among congressional Democrats<\/a>, urging President Joe Biden to end his reelection campaign following his disastrous debate against Trump in June 2024.<\/p>\n

This August, W.W. Norton & Company will release his first book, \u201cNo Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rep.<\/p>\n

AP Photo\/John McDonnell<\/p>\n

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., departs the Democratic National Committee Headquarters after meeting to discuss the 2024 election and President Joe Biden’s candidacy Tuesday, July 9, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s become a highly visible activist for Democrats,\u201d McCuan said, \u201cand that has elevated him beyond just keeping things green.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hahn Niman, for her part, is working to tie Huffman to the sadness and anger still felt by many over the Point Reyes seashore settlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of laughable that he\u2019s attempting to distance himself from it,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause everybody in the Point Reyes area, or in the ranching community, knows very well how deeply he was involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huffman shot back: \u201cShe\u2019s claiming some things that have zero evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make those kinds of claims, I would think she would at least be able to cite a source, like some rancher that told her this.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, I don\u2019t think she can, because a lot of those ranchers are supporting me.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can reach Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @AusMurph88.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wolf is decidedly not at the door for Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, the seven-term incumbent whose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[136968,7,136969,9,8,1752,28416,136970,136971],"class_list":["post-329988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ca-02","tag-california","tag-california-district-2","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-congress","tag-jared-huffman","tag-nicolette-hahn-niman","tag-prop-50-redistricting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}